Sleeping Dragon death by numbers

@Wildfire

Despite the fact that the still had not moved since, Freyja still felt unsettled by it all. What if it happened again? What if it happened to be worse than it had been? These thoughts occupied her greatly as she meandered from the borderlines and towards the common area of the pack. Her head was heavy and, perhaps, she would find herself taking a nap soon.

As she came across the rendezvous site, Freyja quickly caught sight of a flat rock, one that seemed to almost beckon to her in her dreary state. With a sigh, she changed course from the family and and towards the rock. She settled upon it was a heavy sigh, settling herself in a sphinx-like position as she kept to herself in that moment.

She was still feeling feisty today. Wildfire meandered restlessly across the territory, absently looking for a wolf to spar or prey to capture and kill. When neither readily appeared, the inner pressure mounted. By the time the Bandrona found herself crossing paths with an out-of-sorts Freyja, her muscles were stiff with tension and she felt like she had a coiled spring in her belly.

Because of this, Wildfire thought better of making an approach. In fact, the moment she noticed the younger girl, she began to hastily backpedal in the direction which she had come, hoping she hadn't been spotted.

Despite Wildfire’s hopes, she had been spotted by the Feisripa. Freyja caught sight of her in her approach and to this, the down-cast child brightened considerably. Wildfire had seemed distant lately and, to Freyja’s dismay, she had not seen the red-furred leader lately.

“Hey!” she called as she stood upon the rock, her posture heightening as she looked towards the backpedaling leader. “Where are you going?” There was genuine concern in her tone and her features softened as she looked towards Wildfire.

She cringed inwardly when the Feisripa called out after her. Turning to peer over her shoulder, she fibbed, "Call of nature!" Wildfire slunk out of view for a minute or two, loitering since she didn't actually have to go. She took this time to try and collect herself and push the tension out of her core. Several deep breaths were inhaled and subsequently exhaled. She even went as far as to give her slim body a good shake before stepping back toward the youth.

"Sorry," she said, trying to smooth the remaining tension out of her facial muscles. She recalled how intuitive Freyja had been the last time she'd been in a mood and knew she would have to put forth a conscientious effort to maintain a facsimile of good nature. At least it wasn't nearly as personal this time, which would hopefully make things easier. "How're you, Frey?"

As expectancy and worry overcame the girl, Wildfire offered an explanation that calmed Freyja. In realizing what the leader had offered, Freyja nodded in turn as way of a reply and turned away so that it did not appear that she was watching Wildfire relieve herself. She could relate to the red-haired woman as well. When natured called, well, nature called. There was no stopping it when it was time.

She waited patiently for the other to carry out her business and only returned her sights as Wildfire made her approach. Greeting her mentor with a wag of her tail, Freyja stepped from the rock she had perched on and onto the ground. “I’m… okay,” she decided, somewhat hesitantly. “How are you?”

Wildfire continued schooling her expression as she took a seat near the Feisripa. Only when Freyja bounced the question back at her did it occur to her that maybe she didn't need to hide her strange mood from her young friend. Her mouth opened to say something, then clapped shut a moment later as she considered this. How she felt today had nothing at all do with her or anyone else, so why should she go to such efforts to mask it?

"I'm feeling kinda out of sorts, actually," Wildfire admitted. It felt good, being real with Freyja rather than trying to pretend. It wasn't as if she was going to mistreat the girl because of it. "Really moody and sort of feisty. I think it's because of the hormones." She stopped there, not really sure how much the youngster knew of these things and whether she should discuss them at all. It seemed like the sort of topic Gyda or Gavriel should cover with her.

Freyja could somewhat relate to Wildfire’s problems and to the first part of the response, Freyja nodded. But just as she was about to speak, Freyja was thrown off guard. The “birds and the bees” was not a topic that had been explained to Freyja, so the topic of “hormones” was foreign to her. “Hormones?” She asked hesitantly, her ears cupping forward.

Honestly, these hormones sounded like a terrible disease-- something that perhaps Portia could cure. “Can Portia help you?”

"Yeah, they're these chemicals in your body that sometimes get out of whack and make you act funny," Wildfire did her best to explain. Honestly, it had never even occurred to her to seek medical intervention à la Portia. It wasn't a half-bad suggestion. "Maybe! I'll have to speak with her," she said, letting it rest there.

"But how about you? You're only okay?" the Bandrona pressed, picking up the earlier thread of her query. "That's not the fiercely upbeat Frey I know..."

Freyja was still confused on the topic at hand, but, she let it go for now, uncharacteristically not feeling her normal thirst for knowledge. Since the ordeal with Goliath, her hunger for anything, really, had been quelled to an extent. Some days were better than others and today seemed to be one of her worse days.

Uneasily, she shifted at Wildfire’s question and looked away with a sigh. Though she had told Hvitserk what had happened to an extend, Wildfire's question had been key the open the floodgates of het psyche so that she spilled the beans on what exactly had happened to her.   

“A while back… something bad happened.” her gaze lowered from the distance of the territory and towards the ground at her paws. “Goliath was eating a ton from the cache and I tried to get him away from it so we would have food and then he picked me up and dunked me in the river twice and told me not to bother him again.” Her words were like vomit and she could not control it’s stream. "And ever since I haven't felt right." She returned her eyes to Wildfire as tears threatened to spill. But, despite this, she somehow managed to hold them back.

She had only meant to tease, yet she sensed a genuine uneasiness in the young girl that caused a ripple of concern to pass through her. Wildfire frowned, another wave of apprehension washing over her at the words "something bad." Without realizing she was doing it, she rose onto all fours and scooted closer to Freyja, making it clear the youngster had her undivided attention. Her red ears tipped forward too, taking in every single one of the youngster's words.

A heavy silence fell when she finished, as Wildfire struggled to process the information. She didn't know Goliath personally but she could picture him manhandling the smaller Freyja, forcing her into the stream, effectively waterboarding her. Heat flashed through her like a brush fire. When she looked into Freyja's face and saw the dampness in her eyes and the unhappy contortion of her face, she felt a sickening feeling sinking into the very marrow of her bones. Another flush of warmth subsumed it, however, as fiery hot rage engulfed the Bandrona.

"He—he—" she attempted to respond, only to find her voice shaking with unbridled fury. She had the presence of mind to control the anger twisting her face to say, "I am so sorry that happened to you, Frey," before throwing her head back with enough force to audibly crack her neck and baying for @Thuringwethil and @Dio for good measure.

Then, despite her best efforts, uncharacteristic acid leaked from her tongue. "I'll fucking kill him myself." A breath seethed through clenched teeth. "Stay here, Frey," she demanded, dropping her head to begin sniffing for the perpetrator's scent to begin hunting him down.

sorry for this awkward post? lmao

The call catches her attention and everything in her surges forward. Wildfire does not often call her—and especially not added with Dio—and she feels a bubble in her chest she tries to sort away. Thuringwethil does not waste time trying to trivialize why she is being called and instead heads in that direction. Her body shifts to better navigate, temporarily forgetting what she’d been doing, and makes her way to location of the howl.

As she narrows in the location, she notes Freyja's scent too, thick enough to be nearby but as she approaches upon the girl, her brows knit together in confusion. Wildfire’s scent is still heavy and she shifts her weight and angles away from the feisripa for a moment. “Where is Wildfire?” she asks but she doesn’t linger long enough for the answer as she catches on the trail of her mate with her fur bristled. It is only when she catches the rear of Wildfire that she chuffs for her attention.

She half-expected Freyja to insist on tagging along behind her, so when she heard footfalls, she spun to say, "Stay here, we'll—" It wasn't the Feisripa, however, but the commander. The sight of her mate was soothing, though it was short-lived. Her teeth actually gnashed uselessly for a moment as her anger flared up again. She couldn't stop picturing Goliath grabbing Freyja—an image fed by her own experience with Goober—and partially drowning her.

"He—he tried to drown her. Freyja," Wildfire managed to get out, barely able to put a sentence together. The frustration of it only incensed her further. By now, every blade of fur on her body was standing on end, prickling with wrath never before seen on her. She truly looked her name at the moment, her chestnut eyes flashing. "He—picked her up—dunked her." Wildfire seethed before spitting out his name: "Goliath."

Thuringwethil’s ears fall back on her head when Wildfire first speaks but it washes away when the bandrona turns around and realizes who is standing there. She is quiet for a moment but whatever presence she has as her mate does not last long as the reason comes to light. Her explanation puts her ears forward and her head squared above her shoulders. The information is blotchy at first and as much as Thuringwethil wants to run head first into the information and find out who had done what, Wildfire finally pieces it all together.

She glances back over her shoulder having expected Freyja to follow along but she isn’t there, shifting back to her mate. She doesn’t say anything else right away. Her time with Goliath has been limited but he has caught himself in some cross wires that, at the time, had been able to be overlooked and she finds she has been wrong to let him back into her home. Her jaw tightens and she turns a little, looking around for Dio and if he will head Wildfire’s call, before she looks in the direction where she’d left Freyja.

“Freyja, kom op,” she beckons the girl closer.

The call diverts every ounce of his focus and sends him that way, effectively dropping whatever else he'd been preoccupied with. That all could wait. The tone Wildfire put into it, as well as who it requested, did unsettle him somewhat already. He knew better than to take him time answering to something like that, so a ground-devouring lope got him there.

Wildfire and Thuringwethil were already ahead of him, and he keyed into Freyja's scent near as well. He then slowed up for the tail end of his approach, ears swung forward and sights searching for their answers. Wildfire's frustration was palpable and with him not knowing her to get riled like this over something that didn't warrant it, he felt his anticipation (and suspicion) mount quickly. What had caused this? And did the threat still loom.

He came up next the leaders at the very tail end of the explanation. Dunked her? In the end, it seemed it boiled down to one wolf: Goliath. One of their own, or so he had thought. His gold furs gave their rise, now, and he barely swallowed back his own low rumble to hear more.

weird quick post too but !!

Her face grew ghastly as she realized just what she had done. Would she be killed? Probably. She gulped at the thought, coiling herself into a tight ball upon the ground in an attempt to fend off the ideas that came to her. It was in this state that she did not realize the approach and departure of the other two leaders and it was only as she was called that she lifted her head.

She picked herself up apprehensively and carried herself over towards the gathered trio. Once she was before them, she looked to each of them with a hollowed expression and a certain pitiful state about her composure. She was not the strong child that she had grown to become, she was but a shadow of her former self in the wake of her admittance and realization.

She expected the Heda to swiftly join her on the manhunt. Instead, Thuringwethil called for Freyja. On any other day, Wildfire would have seen the logic in this approach. It made sense to question the girl and get further details. Perhaps it was even fairest to calmly question the culprit too. But the Bandrona wanted the blood of the man who'd dared touch—and abuse—the pack's sweetheart, right this very instant. Wildfire trusted Freyja implicitly and so Goliath was guilty and as good as dead.

The yearling pawed and stamped at the earth, her impatience clear, as Dio arrived and, not far behind him, Freyja herself. Before the commander or Wocha could make any inquiries, Wildfire finally found her tongue and spat, "How dare he touch a hair on her head?!" Directly to the girl in question, she added, "Don't worry, Frey, we won't let him get away with it. I'll rip his goddamn spine out through his nose myself."

She pivoted as if to signal to the others, What are we waiting for? This savage impatience was not at all typical of her but Wildfire didn't even stop to think about it. As one of the Hedonakru of Drageda, she was judge and jury. As far as she was concerned, they didn't need anything else than Freyja's word via Wildfire herself. It was time to hunt down Goliath and execute him for his atrocious treatment of the pack's young.

The next few seconds happy quickly and she doesn’t focus on anyone for any length of time but a moment until everything manages to settle. Dio approaches, making his own confused expression, but he doesn’t speak—either he heard enough or waits for an explanation—and Freyja comes up a few seconds later. She doesn’t speak either, looking between the three of them, and her ears fall back against her head as she’d rather scoop the girl up and make it better. Wildfire, however, seems to have a different idea as she speaks of taking matters into her own hands. 

Thuringwethil growls lowly toward Wildfire in an attempt to silence her but her attention ultimately rests on the girl. She'd gotten so big and has accomplished so much, surprising all of them, but the girl before her is wearing a different mask. Nor does she want to put Freyja through the explaining it all over again (especially in an audience). “Is it true?” she asks instead, lifting her head encouragingly for the girl’s own chin to rise. And, should the answer be yes, she’ll ask, “when?”

The details were still fuzzy and gradually taking their shapes, but seeing Freyja's demeanor and Wildfire's riled state sought to steel away this confusion immediately. With the former looking so defeated and the latter chomping at her bit for the kill, it had to have been foul. Whatever had happened, exactly, simply did not leave a good impression on those who did understand. That was where the red flags started, and silently, he implored Heda then eased back when she aimed the questions at the youth so not to overwhelm her unnecessarily. But his ears tipped her way, and he tried to seem encouraging while still looming quietly -- even with his quick glances to Wildfire, half to make sure she hadn't literally caught flame in all of her rage.

A lot rode on her answers, should she give them up, and Dio would act in accordance. He measured his breath in the meantime, readying himself should the next beat be motion.

In that moment Freyja felt lost in a sea of stares and even though said looks were encouraging, she found herself floundering helplessly. Her bounce periodically shifted from wolf to wolf as she attempted to read each of them. Eventually, as the Heda spoke, Freyja laid her eyes on Thuringwethil.

In response to the first question, Freyja nodded slowly as a frown formed upon her dark lips.  She did not feel like speaking but knew it would be needed in the bringing of justice. “I-It was almost a month ago,” she replied after a heavy pause. Panic began to rise at her next thought and she looked away, embarrassed by the tears that she felt in her eyes. “He started attacking the cache and eating everything in sight… I tried to stop him and he d-dunked me in the river… twice.” Despite her fears she pressed on through remembering what had happened. “A-And he said if I told he would finish what he started.” She turned back to the three leaders as she began to shiver in fear of her next thought.

“Y-You won’t let him k-kill me, r-right?”

On a regular day, a growl from the Heda would have Wildfire rushing to submit and apologize for stepping out of line. Today, however, the Bandrona didn't even flinch. There was a deadly look in her eye as her gaze swept over the territory at large. Her attention only snapped back when Freyja revealed the timeline: Goliath had attacked her a month ago. Her mouth opened in shock, then clapped shut as she tried but failed to swallow the growl that bubbled up her throat. This savage had hurt the girl weeks ago and had been living among them this entire time?!

When Freyja mentioned the male's threat, the delay made sense and only further infuriated the yearling. At the Feisripa's question, she literally saw red, like a mist that clouded her vision. It startled Wildfire, causing her to blink rapidly. The instant her sight cleared, she began growling again, only now she made no effort to bite it back. She let it surge up and out of her, a surprisingly loud and wrathful noise that distorted her face into a bloodthirsty snarl.

"We'll kill him first," she promised in way of reply to Freyja before addressing her fellow leaders. "Won't we?" Her voice was less uncertainty and more livid promise. Of course they would punish Goliath for what he'd done. He would never touch or even speak to the young huntress again, because Wildfire personally vowed to rip off his face and paws.

This is officially open and, also, not mandatory. You may cameo them being nearby. There will not necessarily be rounds so I won't set a time limit unless we need to. The core five will continue as a loose post order while others file in, should they choose to do so. If there's any questions, please PM me or message me on Slack! @Gyda @Portia @Hush @Rosalyn @Tanja @Thyri @Eske @Hvitserk @Rebekka.

Thuringwethil doesn’t need the information she’s given as Freyja begins to explain, her voice quivering with each word, and her entire body tenses. She doesn’t have to say another word for the conviction is already declared in her head. When she’s asked to keep the girl safe, her teeth grind together and she has to resist the urge to snap her teeth at Wildfire. Instead, she gives a louder growl than the first time when she realizes it had not been enough.

“He will not harm you anymore,” she then says, glancing once to Wildfire and then to Dio with a point of her nose. She moves to put the girl between Dio and herself. She gives Freyja an encouraging nod of her head in hopes she’ll be able to stand a little straighter. And if not now, when the beast is no longer a problem. Thuringwethil lifts her head—whether or not the other two join—and calls for @Goliath. While her intent may be vague, the draw of the pack is also encouraged.

Gyda is not sure what draws her to Thuringwethil's vague call for Goliath, but she goes to it without resistance. She left Eske upon the borders trusting her aggressive daughter to hold down the borders until she rejoins her. Though she is weary of leaving her young alone Gyda realized they were not small babes anymore and growing into capable young adults and she knows that if nothing else Eske's aggression and ferocity will make her any stranger's worst nightmare. She moves quickly through the territory, steps slowing when she comes across the scene. At first, Gyda struggles to make sense of it her gaze goes, naturally, to her eldest daughter nestled between Thuringwethil and Dio: trembling. Her heart nearly stops beating and her hackles bristle as she approaches the thr.ee leaders, caring only for why her daughter appeared to be afraid and why Goliath had anything to do with it. “Freyja,” Gyda beseeches her daughter with unwavering concern. “What has happened?” The Gona demands out of the four of them, perhaps forgetting her rank but she was not asking as anything other than a concerned mother. Her rank might only be Gona and her children might be old enough to take care of themselves but that did not mean she would ever cease to be their protective mother (and henceforth felt she had a right to know what had transpired as such). She would stop trying to protect them only when she drew her last, dying breath.

feel  free to skip, she's just hanging out :D

Rosalyn heard and wondered at whether she should come - the packs presence was welcome, but did that include her?

She paused only a moment before wordlessly rising and beginning the jog towards Thuring's voice.  Might as well see what was up.  

When she arrived many had already gathered, and she kept back, not reading much in the scene before her.  A few seemed agitated enough, but Rosalyn could only begin to imagine why.  Likely she'd find out soon enough.

His ears had been trained to hear such calls, so when Heda's song reached him the man was quick to spin on his heals and head in her direction. The call for Goliath had him guessing as to what this gathering was actually for and to say the least Tanja's curiosity got the best of him. It took him a while but he eventually made it to the scene and stumbled upon a few others that seemed focused on the girl Freyja he had meet a while ago. He threw the girl a curious glance and wondered what happened that had her trembling between Heda and a wolf he had yet to properly meet. 

He turned his attention to Thuringwethil then and waits for a command of any sorts to be given. Despite his gaze set on Heda, he kept one ear open for an order while the other was purely focused on what was going on around him. He listened for any clues that might give him an idea as to why had been summoned but for the most he was mainly listening for any hints as to why everyone looked so damn angry.

She is safe now, this much she realizes. Eventually, as Thuringwethil moves her between herself and Dio, she begins to relax. This, by no means, meant that she stopped shaking. But, there seemed to be progress happening right before the group’s eyes. Her attention shifted quickly as Gyda came onto the scene. Picking herself up, Freyja looked to her mother longingly with a wave of her tail. She did not want to move from the protection of the two leaders, but, at the same time, she wanted nothing more than her mother. Conflicted in it all, she offered a quiet whine.

Whether or not Freyja’s safety would be affected in the coming days is still a mystery. Though many of her packmates gather, she finds the absence of Goliath jolting. Did he already leave, plotting his revenge elsewhere? Or would he show up? She gulped, in an attempt to hype herself up and appear stronger than she actually felt. That much she could do in that moment.